South Korean Christian groups have reportedly succeeded in forcing school textbooks to drop inconvenient evidence of evolution from their pages, lest they poison the minds of Korean children with the satanic notions of science and rationality.

A Korean creationist group, the “Society for Textbook Revise,” persuaded the ministry of education that it should lean on school textbook publishers to remove examples of evolution from their publications, says a recent report in Nature:

A petition to remove references to evolution from high-school textbooks claimed victory last month after the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) revealed that many of the publishers would produce revised editions that exclude examples of the evolution of the horse or of avian ancestor Archaeopteryx.

The move has alarmed biologists, who say that they were not consulted. “The ministry just sent the petition out to the publishing companies and let them judge,” says Dayk Jang, an evolutionary scientist at Seoul National University.

[...]

The STR is also campaigning to remove content about “the evolution of humans” and “the adaptation of finch beaks based on habitat and mode of sustenance”, a reference to one of the most famous observations in Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.

The campaign is only part of a concerted effort by Korean creationists to supplant the teaching of evolution with so-called “creation science” and “intelligent design” – or in other words, variations on their belief that the universe was created in a week ten thousand years ago.

Almost 30% of South Korea’s population identify themselves as Christians of one denomination or another, mostly in the form of evangelical protestants and Catholics, a situation which coincidentally developed after the nation came to enjoy post-war American suzerainty.

Surveys suggest approximately a third of South Koreans do not believe in evolution, a proportion which almost matches that of the US (40%) and other more godly nations.

"the story of jesus that's in the bible was just based off the story of horus anyways. both born on dec. 25th, both born of a virgin, both had 12 disciples, etc."

"jesus kind of sounds like horus anyways. i guess the writers of the bible weren't that creative, lol"

"The writers of the bible weren't creative at all. Except if plagiarism counts as creativity, I guess.
Adopting and renaming/rewriting a gazillion of pagan deities/holidays/stories and all. For example they adopted the deluge story from the Sumerian legends."

"If God isn't real. What's the purpose of life? "
- God != Purpose
- Be an individual, rather than suck up your purpose from some fairy tale (religion).

"You die, then what?"
- Unknown. You need to die first. A similar pre-requisite to Heaven/Hell.

"I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to throw in the towel and accept this life is just a waste of time and when I die that's it. "
- And your opinion will is no more than an opinion of religious douche.

Evolution has facts, while the bible has stories with weak statistics.

There is something wrong with your logic.
Aren't you most likely to waste time when you believe you have another life after this?
Also, Aren't you more likely live your life if you blieve that the end is close?

Now I am not a hater. I am someone who reseach from every points of view and sort them out logically.

Now just as you said archeological evidence is not enough prove it happen. The bible is not enough to prove it as well. As far as we could say, the bible has been changed countless of time (You would know this if you research on bible history). Thus, the bible itself does not prove Jesus exist.

Now if you think about it closely, the bible has influenced many more people then Evolution ever can and it will continue to infulence people.
Example of infulence: in the days of Sir Isaac Newton, people believes the Sun, heaven, and everything thing revolves around the Earth, just as how god created. Try telling that to people now, even Christian won't believe that.

You said before that "Evolution is a religion". That will be disagreed by many people. Evolution is a theory. So far I wouls agree with them. If you study further you will find out that Charles Darwin stated that we can find animals that shares some trades of their parent species. (wanna prove it? go look at your biological parents, do you look like them? Yes? Ok it is proven)

Your who point about indoctrinated by evolution is not very valid. Evolution has been looked over proven, and disproven for many many years before it was recognized. It is not as easy as to recognizing the bible stories. To be honest, if you fit "God" to anything then it would work out. Examples, Why do birds fly? Because God made them like that. Why did my father have to die? Because it is in God's plan. When does 2 + 2 = 5? When God says it does.
Does this make sense?

Finally, your statement of Facts being influenced by human desires. Look, evidents is evidents. It is what it is, you can not change it nor can you BS it to only prove your statement.
If that were the case, the world would be a very messed up place. You would have people flying with nothing but their body and cloths or the laws of Gravity would only apply to some people.

Now I am going to state again, I am not a hater of Christianity. I am only a person who studies all points of view (different religion and different school of thoughts) and try to sort them as logical as possible.

Some of you might say, "You can't possibility understand what God think as logic". If you did, you have just proven my point of "if you fit 'God' to anything then it would work out"

Thanks for reading. Always be open minded and see everyone's points of view.

If God isn't real. What's the purpose of life? You die, then what? Is that it? End of existence? (That's sure as Hell something to be gratefully looking for...)

I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to throw in the towel and accept this life is just a waste of time and when I die that's it. If you wish to cease existing, then I'm more than happy to let you cease existing.

With that said.
Jesus did exist as a Human Being. Enough archeological evidence to not only prove it happened, but there are many cultures that were influenced by it (and not just by account of the Bible). The Koran is just one example, but there are so many more sources to pick from that will tell you he did exist. Whether you wish to believe any of it, it's completely up to you.

Now. EVOLUTION is a religion as much as Christianity. Reason: YOU CAN'T PROVE ANYTHING HAPPENED. It happened Trillions of years ago. None of us were there. None of us SAW it happen. None of us have an account of the events that caused the individual body parts to form where they are. All we have is ASSUMPTIONS based on "Ooh we found this! It looks human like. This must be our Great great great...................(several hours later) great grandfather/mother thing."

The ONLY thing that keeps people from ADMITTING that it's a RELIGION is the fact that so many of you have been INDOCTRINATED by EVOLUTION the same way a Christian School INDOCTRINATES children to believe in GOD. It's the same Mind-warping power mankind has used to control our independent minds. Every now and then someone like ME comes around and says, "HUH. What if..."

-Science is the Finding of Facts.
However, when your FACTS are influenced by YOUR WANTS and DESIRES it's no longer science, but a pursuit to proving yourself to be right.

Being right is so easy to do when you want it to be. I mean the answers will always be what you want them to be, even when you're wrong.

(Otherwise we wouldn't have groups like the "Flat Earth Society" trying to convince us that the world is FLAT. heh-heh-heh Flat Earth Society... And people say CHRISTIANS are retards.)

Not Christian here but learn some religious facts before you rant on like an idiot. The Christian Jesus Christ was never born on December the 25th. I suggest you research why it wasn't and how the pagans were involved.

It is known that Christians consciously decided his birthday would be December 25 to coincide with the winter solstice, called it Christmas, and incorporated a bunch of pagan traditions into their new holiday.

No. Jesus was NOT born Dec. 25. GOOD JOB!
He was more likely born in October according to SOME sources. But whatever. It's a mute point because we weren't there. We don't have a way to prove it. And the Calendar of today wasn't exactly available to the Jewish peoples at that time. So you're guess is as good as mine.

With that said the Roman known as Constantine became influenced by the Christian movement and accepted it as his own. But he didn't stop at simply accepting it, he went Berserk and started creating an Empire out of it. Truth be told the real reason for the Roman Catholic Church was completely Political. (As pointed out by Martin Luther 1500s several Centuries later) Anyways Christmas (Dec. 25th) was chosen as Jesus Birthday because is was the Roman's original celebration of the "sun god Apollo" which he said... "Hm... Son god... Son of God.... Hey! I could make this the Celebration of the Son of God! His Birthday! Yay!" Well, to have you know Easter was chosen for the exact same reason. It was to cover up another Roman god celebration. (Same with most of the other Christian celebrations across the board)

Obama is Hawaiian not "black". Native Hawaiians have a dark skin tone close that that of a "black" person. whether he has any African-American blood in him I don't know (I haven't done any research on the subject).

LOL look at all the new accounts being created (bumpermelon, prungy) to vote up joke comments about starcraft and "less extreme" christians to hide the fact that the person they love ("jesus") doesn't even exist.

I, Personally do not care whether a person follows a faith of any kind. I do, however, care when people of faith try to force their beliefs upon others.

I once had a friend who was christian. On many occasions he threatened to end our friendship if i didn't convert to his faith. Needless to say, he wasn't my friend for very long.

When people of faith force change on people who do not follow the same ideas, nothing but bad things follow in it's wake. The "christian" groups are forcefully depriving children from having the benefit of an beneficial and intelligent education.

Due to this insanity, those children will grow up with an ignorant and limited view of the world; thus stifling the artistic and scientific advances made possible by those who would have had a more logical and informed outlook on the world.

In the US you are free to follow any belief. If you are taught things that disagree with your belief all you have to do is just disregard it.

jesus does exist, guys. if you read the bible it details the family tree through the generations of every decendant until christ. every place in the bible is documented and exists in the real world. they have even recovered the cowl placed over jesus' body after his execution complete with bloodstains and all. i don't expect non-believers to believe what i say, but if you watch the documentary "the case for christ" you will understand. there is also a discovery channel documentary about the cowl and how they reconstructed jesus' face and body from the blood stains and subtle creases of the fabric. i know it's the cool thing to bash religion, but throwing up bullshit that you hear from tv and pretending to know is only stunting your own knowledge.

they have even recovered the cowl placed over jesus' body after his execution complete with bloodstains and all

And we know it's his because... the church says so?

but if you watch the documentary "the case for christ" you will

I did. The movie presented no evidence that a church with an agenda could not have fabricated.

understand. there is also a discovery channel documentary about the cowl and how they reconstructed jesus' face and body from the blood stains and subtle creases of the fabric

Reconstruction doesn't mean what you think it means. They basically made it all up. We don't have the technology to tell much more than scetchy traits even with real DNA evidence.
Also, this still doesn't prove who the cowl really belonged to.

i know it's the cool thing to bash religion, but throwing up bullshit that you hear from tv

i'm not trying to personally attack you or your beliefs, but i am going to explain the flaws in your replies.
the first reply you said that every book based on a real world setting was documented and in a real world setting. does that include other religious books? they have the the events of christ documented in the annals of the kings of israel. it is documentation of the events of the royal families and their part in jesus' execution. it is not dicated by the church.
your second reply "And we know it's his because... the church says so?" i'm afraid not, it was recovered by an archeological team which found jesus's original burial site. a non-believer like you wanted to prove the bible wrong, and found the location by putting the information together from the bible. much to his suprise when they radio carbon dated the cloth it was over 2000 years old. they had to do it twice, because the first team messed up the process, by dating the corners, which were handled too much and threw off the dating.
you said there was no evidence, that a church with an agenda could not have fabricated. this idea that there is a single church that fabricates lies and emails other churches around the world is surprisingly difficult to believe. the people who wrote the book were historians documenting events in real time. the church was formed around the word, not the other way around. the dogma that the catholic church adopts is not in the bible itself, but a means to celebrate the events written inside. such as christmas. the date is not revealed in the bible. the people felt a need to celebrate jesus' birth and decided 25 was as good a guess as they could muster. it is not in the bible. the holy word was not changed. a dogma was adopted and anyone who goes to church knows that.
you said reconstruction doesn't mean what i think it means. we know that it is not an exact science. but that does not change the fact that they had the cowl of jesus christ on their table and attempted to replicate his face from it. it is not "basically made it all up" these guys are the scientist that you all seem to hold so dearly. true scientists that are after the truth above all else, and not funded by any religious organisation. the technology does exist to pull gentle creases and create an image. they do this with dinosaur bones in the earth. they send a shockwave with a 12-gauge shell into the earth. it sends back subtle vibrations and after a few hours they can sketch (with a computer) what they expect to find underground. it is old tech but does the job right.
in your final comment, you say that i am being sarcastic. i am not. i call the false information bullshit, because that is an accurate term for it. it is dis-information that is provided to sway believers and embolden non believers.

There is more evidence that he existed than not. He is mentioned also in the Koran after all.

However the Bible should not be taken as a single book, it is more of a carefully selected collection of ancient texts. A lot of this texts were also adaptations of even older stories. It is also badly translated in a lot of parts and there are plenty of books detailing the mistakes, including at least one backed by the Vatican.

Coming back to the article. I will never understand why conservative Christians do not like evolution. The theory does not say that we were created or not by some entity, it just states the processes involved in our journey from the beginning of life to the present. What is so bad about having a common origin with all life? If anything it is even more amazing than just outright popping out of nothing.

But I get it, somehow the scientific version makes them feel less special. :p

Here is how you can tell if someone in the comments is a christian: they only criticize the word "fundamentalists", and never once say the word "christian".

Protip: you're not gonna win any points here by saying you're a "less crazy" christian. the fact that you don't realize the imaginary person you love named jesus didn't even exist makes you crazy enough already.

I just find amusement from all this. Though it is easier to stick it to those religious, some Atheists who somehow believe that they are free from characteristics of extremists and obsessive behaviour as the ones they criticize are just as bad when they actively search anything relating to religion to argue about. So much so like a Mary Whitehouse searching for offensive material to complain.

I don't care about what you guys believe or don't believe. However flame wars about religion is always amusing to watch regardless.

Don't prove the story in a book by pointing to the same book. If that were the case, I can prove that Harry Potter exists by pointing to one of several books written about him, sold world-wide, and "worshipped" by teenagers.

Infact Jesus was a bastard than Mary made before she get married with Joseph. And she lie to him by saying it was the son of God. Joseph too stupid believed her.Well all kind of God don't exist. They need to evolute.

There's supposed to be proof Jesus did in fact exist.
There's no proof of his sorcery though. Hey may have been a very spiritual and devoted person, but his story was no doubt greatly (and I mean reaaaalllyy) exaggerated.

Forsaking our elders teachings is a long and difficult process, particularly when the first thing they attempt to instil in us is to respect our elders...

However, with that being said, I have found that, while a majority of American youth today still cling to some faith, they have by and large forsaken the denominations (Catholicism, Baptism, etc.) and seek non-denominational churches that will allow for them to take more modern views instead..

Ther are more historical and contemporary accounts of Jesus Christ than of Julius Caesar. And those accounts are closer in history to the actual events. Its goofy fairy tale belief to insist there never was a Jesus. You can reject the supernatural elements of the Bible, those take faith to believe, but the historical ones are rock solid and proven by archaeology.

Well technically there are like 38 gods from the old world with the exact specs as he did, the birth the rebirth the death, son of god and all that stuff, look at Horus for example, same stars stories about birth and all. Truth is, the son of the sun, the cross symbol it's all about constellations and stars, Easter and all... the story is a star map with the constellations, this is the reason why it is so common in legends and myths. As for Jesus the man, he might or might have not been a chieftain descendant of the royal family who rebeled against Rome and they pined the old myth to his name. Why? simple, in biblical times it was customary to associate important leaders to mythical births and origins. Cesar did get that honour so did many of their time. By that time everyone knew that so what was important was not the origin of the man in the text but the rest, mostly his message. Btw did you know that crucifixion head up was for bandits and rebels, head down (like the first pope... what is his name in english I can never remember sorry.... to lazy to look it up) was reserved for heretics. So if he was a religious leader, Christ would have been head down, not up.

Oh well, at least Christians can die with a smile on their faces believing they'll go somewhere better, unlike atheists and the sort that know they'll degrade into dust. Seriously, who'd want to turn into dust?

38 gods from the old world with the exact specs as he did? You really need to stop believing everything you read on the Internet. There's one particular pic that floats around that claims Mithras, Osiris, Horus, Marduk, Saturn, Apollo, and so on were all virgin births. This is bullshit, as any Classical scholar will tell you - Osiris' father was Geb, Horus' father was Osiris, Marduk's father was Enki, Saturn's father was Uranus, and so on. Mithras was born from a rock and not a woman so that doesn't count either.

Jesus based on older myths? This is the "Christianity copied X" thing again. The standard examples are Mithras and Attis. In the case of Mithras, that would have been difficult since Jesus actually pre-dates the fully-developed Mithras cult - the earliest archeological traces of it are dated at least 40 years after the death of Jesus. Attis is of course another "sacrificed and rising again" figure. Except that none of the surviving stories of Attis that have him doing that actually pre-date Christianity. So in reality, it's the cults that are borrowing from Christianity, not the other way around.

None of these people care about "evidence" anyway, so this is an argument that won't lead you anywhere. They're only afraid that their kids might have some braincells and be able to break free of the curse of their parent's brainwashing them in an attempt to ruin their lives, too.

No real evidence, its more like there where multiple stories of prophets that came together as Jesus. No disciples wrote or where harmed in the making of Christianity. Retarded fisherman wrote nothing at all so the stories of one man are problem from many retarded mentally challenge men who went around making stuff up. After that stories from other Gods and Demi-gods where added.

Creationism isn't a theory. Creationism is just another fairy tale. Fitting, seeing that Christianity is the modern equivalent of Greek/Roman mythology.

A theory or scientific theory is a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experiment.

Such fact-supported theories are not "guesses" but reliable accounts of the real world. The theory of biological evolution is more than "just a theory." It is as factual an explanation of the universe as the atomic theory of matter or the germ theory of disease.
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Religion, at it's best, is a less than perfect means of instilling a sense of morality and civic duty in those people who can't envision doing "the right thing" without the threat of "Eternal Damnation" pfft. whatever.

And on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and ohgodwhy!?

The writers of the bible weren't creative at all. Except if plagiarism counts as creativity, I guess.
Adopting and renaming/rewriting a gazillion of pagan deities/holidays/stories and all. For example they adopted the deluge story from the Sumerian legends.

"i guess the writers of the bible weren't that creative"
Like how incest was perfectly fine with adam and eve, the notion of copyright wasn't invented back then. Most of the stuff written in the bible is ripped off of older tales.

I love these kinds of posts. Where people would actually put an effort into a 2000 word essay in a lousy comment area off some weird news site thinking that their opinions are the shit only to be down voted and disappear!! It's fun to watch their efforts come to waste and still do it again and again, especially to the racial specific, religious-tied posts! Hilarious! *takes out popcorn*.